The Community Engagement Strategy

Strengthening Existing Community
& Faith-Based Organizations
The United Nations defines Community development as "a process where community members
come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a
broad term given to the practices of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to
improve various aspects of communities, typically aiming to build stronger and more resilient
local communities.
Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them
with the skills they need to effect change within their communities. These skills are often created
through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. Community
developers must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities'
positions within the context of larger social institutions.
Community development as a term has taken off widely in anglophone countries i.e. the USA,
UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and other countries in the Commonwealth. It is also
used in some countries in eastern Europe with active community development associations in
Hungary and Romania. The Community Development Journal, published by Oxford University
Press, since 1966 has aimed to be the major forum for research and dissemination of
international community development theory and practice.
Community development approaches are recognized internationally. These methods and
approaches have been acknowledged as significant for local social, economic, cultural,
environmental and political development by such organizations as the UN, WHO, OECD, World
Bank, Council of Europe and EU.
Different Approaches
There are numerous overlapping approaches to community development. Some focus on the
processes, some on the outcomes/ objectives. They include:
Community Capacity Building; focusing on helping communities obtain, strengthen,
and maintain the ability to set and achieve their own development objectives.
Social Capital Formation; focusing on benefits derived from the cooperation between
individuals and groups.
Nonviolent Direct Action; when a group of people take action to reveal an existing
problem, highlight an alternative, or demonstrate a possible solution to a social issue
which is not being addressed through traditional societal institutions (governments,
religious organizations or established trade unions) are not addressing to the satisfaction
of the direct action participants.
Economic Development, focusing on the "development" of developing countries as
measured by their economies, although it includes the processes and policies by which a
nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people.
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